Originally published February 20, 2012 at 5:05 p.m., updated February 20, 2012 at 5:05 p.m.
This generation’s students are constantly flooded with new technology at home, work and school. Students are receptive to electronic books, in particular, but some are hesitant to trade in the printed word for a screen of e-ink.
Provost Jeffrey Vitter said the University plans to slowly implement ebooks into classrooms across campus, but the process is just in the beginning stages.
“We have very high level people who will be making visits to Apple, to Google, Microsoft, IBM and possibly HP and Dell in order to build collaborative projects and get discounts and see how we can leverage what they are doing to improve what we are doing in our educational process,” Vitter said.
In January, Apple announced its new interactive textbook interface, iBooks 2. The program allows publishers to create interactive textbooks and publish them directly to iPads. In the same announcement, Apple said it was revamping its iTunes U section to allow more universities to join and publish entire courses through the iTunes store. Vitter said the University has applied for a license to upload content to iTunes U.
Students using their iPads, Kindles or other tablet readers on campus is not uncommon. Taylor Bettle, a sophomore English major from Wichita, frequently reads books for classes on her Kindle Fire, and she said it’s all about the convenience tablets can provide.
“I definitely use it a lot for classes,” Bettle said. “Some of the textbooks for class I have on here. Some I couldn’t get on there so I had to get the paper form. But I like using it a lot.”
However, some students are skeptical of the online textbooks and classes. Amara Siddiqui, a junior from Wichita, does not think course materials online will work well for her.
“I’ve had e-book versions of certain books and it is a lot more comforting to the eyes to look at the actual book copy rather than the ebook copy,” Siddiqui said.
The KU Bookstore recognizes that some professors and publishing companies are pushing for ebook usage and are trying to do their best to keep up. Kyle Whitley is a supervisor in the textbooks department and said the store is adjusting to the transition to digital.
“Mostly what we are doing is providing anything the instructor adopts and working with the publisher to get that in the store,” Whitley said. “We have less control over what it is — a book versus an ebook — that is all dependent on the instructor who adopts it. What we are doing is trying our best to get that product in the store at a competitive price.”
— Edited by Amanda Gage
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